How 3 Pipelines Could Replace Putin's Gas

Over the last few months, Europe has quickly learned that it's dangerously reliant on Russian gas. Three pipelines could relieve this strain though, bringing gas in from across the Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa... but will they happen?

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1 - Kapstein, The Insecure Alliance, p. 137

[TLDRnewsEU]

CORRECTION: At 2:57, we say that TurkStream was originally commissioned as Blue Stream. This isn't quite correct: TurkStream is actually a replacement for Blue Stream 2, first suggested up by Putin in 2009. Blue Stream was the first Russia-Turkey gas pipeline, which began pumping gas in 2005. Blue Stream 2, which would have run parallel to Blue Stream, was proposed by Putin in 2009, but it never took off. Blue Stream 2 was replaced by South Stream, which was in turn replaced by TurkStream after it was cancelled by the Russian government in 2014.

[orhan]

5 stages of grief..Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Pay in Rubles.

[_MrMoney]

One of the main problems with the Trans-Saharian pipeline is the relations between Spain, Morocco and Algeria, especially in regards to the Western Sahara issue. A video on the matter would be helpful.

[speedzero]

France is the only country that at least partially figured it out, with nuclear. When I was a kid my dad always told me what a huge mistake it was that Italy was closing its nuclear plants down. You were right dad.

[Accessless]

What the EU uses natural gas for might make an interesting video. I.e. percentage of domestic, industrial and power generation and which countries could be using greener alternatives.

[tomschmidt]

Interesting oil and gas history lesson. I had no idea the relationship went back that far. Given the loss of European colonies after WWII that makes sense.

[andyt]

It is so frustrating how stupid Europe has been. Ever since Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, they should have had a plan for deteriorating relations with Russia.

[Thinkingaroundthebox]

It all comes down to money and time

You'd be surprised how fast political issues between nations evaporate when money is on the line. Countries that don't like each other will get along really fast when there is money to be made

The bigger problem is the building of any pipeline will take a lot of time. So unless their is a pipeline already in place it is already to late to help Europe with the coming winter

[PtolemyVV]

Also. Greece apparently has huge gas reserves around its seas with some of the biggest reserves south of Crete. Which would be bigger than what Norway or Slochteren from Netherlands has. But unfortunately Greece was too late in accessing this. It was about to 7 years ago, but the continously stronger push for green energy was the reason why not just Greece but Europe had less incentive to exploit this resource.

But in the end when the world news revolves around how Europe is building new routes for gas, I always have to laugh, because likely Greece would be one of the biggest sources just under the noses of Europe that would by now have helped Europe immensely.

[timogul]

Some guy: "Maybe they should just move away form fossil fuels that they don't have?"

Some guy gets thrown out window.

[omargoldi]

A little geopolitics about the East Med energy boom.

The current status quo of East Med is that Israel exports it’s gas through existing pipelines to Egypt which then gets liquified at either of Egypt’s 2 LNG stations which then gets exported to Europe. In Q1 of 2022, Egypt’s gas exports went up 900% mainly thanks to the ZOR gas field coming online. Building a gas pipeline connecting East Med to Europe is currently to expensive and time consuming especially as the status quo is more than sufficient with only 1 of the 2 LNG stations in Egypt at full capacity.

A project currently underway is connecting the Egyptian electric grid to the Greek grid through Cyprus using HVDC submarine wires allowing Egypt to export its surplus electricity directly.

Especially as the Dabaa’ Nuclear Power Plant on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt comes online later this decade. Currently Egypt exports it’s excess electricity to Libya, Sudan, Jordan, Iraq and hopefully soon Lebanon while still running a surplus.

Connecting the electrical grids will allow not just fossil fuel energy to get to Europe but excess Solar, Wind, Hydro and Nuclear power also to be exported to and used by Europeans.

I am sure most of these issues will be brought up when leaders from around Europe and the World come to Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt next November to attend COP 27 (United Nations Climate Change Conference) where the issue of switching away from fossil fuels by all western nations will be discussed as an issue of national security and not only as an environmental issue.

Hope everything works out for my fellow Europeans, especially during the winter 👍

Much love from Egypt ❤️

[antoinefdu]

I chuckled at the idea of Russia objecting to something on the basis of ecological concerns.

[eaman]

Trans Adriatic Pipeline from Azerbaijan to Italy is already in place, will bring 12m this winter up from 8m this year, will bring 20m in a few years at full capacity.
Also yesterday Europe approved some 6 billions for hydrogen developments, backed up by other 11 billions from the private sector. Part of the idea is to have renewables in Africa when they are more effective and than pipe hydrogen to Europe converting part of Italians gas pipes, building new ones in Spain.

[fastspanish]

Update: Marroco and Algeria are in a tense situation and the pipe in Marroco is not pumping any gas.

[antoniomromo]

I often wonder if this will push the EU to reduce its use of gas and oil, and replace it with electricity. Full electrification is really the only way to do long term energy security.

[edwardblair]

You showed the volumes of each pipeline individually, but it would have been nice to see a graph with all of them together.
For example, show two circles. The first showing the current sources of EU gas imports, and the second just showing the additional capacity added by the new pipelines.

[tomarmstrong]

"Oh no! The country we sold our self reliance to in exchange for cheap energy were bad guys! Quick! find another politically unstable replacement!"

These people would literally try run a pipeline through the increasingly violent north Africa than to even consider Nuclear Energy.

[TheNuclearGeek]

There are far more reasonable alternatives especially for heating, like restarting nuclear plants & geothermal. Countries like Germany who shutdown their nuclear plants out of fear after Fukushima and switched to Russian gas (way to go on that one Germany!) should already be in the planning for restarting those plants, hiring and training workers, etc. If nothing else this gives the option to shutdown the gas plants OR increasing generation capability to utilize electric heating for the winter. The UK and other nations that have shutdown plants should be doing the same.
I also know for a fact that there are already "personal" geothermal wells in the UK and other European Nations. I am also aware of the issues that have been caused by poor research into them causing things like sinking/broken foundations, etc., BUT the fact those lessons have already been learned means the ability to properly drill wells has been improved. They can also be scaled up to provide for larger businesses, apartments, etc. They are "green" which should please people. They are local which means no major international political or building hang-ups. There are also already companies in place that have experience with creating them. It certainly won't be a solution for everyone, everywhere, but where it can be done and be supported with government subsidies, the reductions in gas requirements would be noticeable and benefit the entire continent.

Transcontinental and intercontinental pipelines built to replace the Russian pipelines, much like Communism, sound great on paper, but the reality is it took from the 1970s to the 2020s to build the pipelines that are currently in place. Replacements would be decades out at best which means entire countries (or the world altogether at this rate) could be gone by then and will have little to no real world impact until the far future. Utilizing smaller scale, local, (and at least in people's minds) greener alternatives would be far more reasonable to show some impact on how things are currently.
As in all necessities, the lack of significant diversification is the lesson no one ever seems to learn. Being wholly and only dependent on someone else, especially one with a questionable behavior and history, is asking for inevitable catastrophe. Hell, this makes ditching fire places decades ago look short sighted now.

[samuxan]

It could be interesting to dig deeper into the relationship between Algeria and Spain/EU since it has deteriorated so much recently making it harder for this pipeline to work

[UltimateVegetto]

9:42 Goddammit guys. I was listening in the background and thought my PC was crashing. Never, ever play that sound again!